The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

The Loeb-Leopold Case
They planned first to pick up young Levinson.
They went down to the school. They looked up the
telephone book for Levinson's address. The Levin-
son boy was gone when they got back. They waited
an hour or so, and then got field glasses that they
might spy out the boy they were picking out to
murder. The boy went down the alley, and they
lost track of him. They went to Levinson's home,
but did not see him. On the way back the fates so
had it that they saw the Franks boy. They at once
decided to kidnap him.
These two stalwart youths, two full-grown per-
sons, if you please, inveigled the little boy into the
car, and then one of them — and they each disclaim
and accuse the other — struck the Franks boy with
the chisel, and dragged him over the back of the
seat. The coroner's physician tells us that there
were four gashes on the head of that boy, and the
evidence shows much blood.
They drove south to the Midway, and stopped
to telephone a young lady, and to get something to
eat. The boy was dead. When he was pulled back
into the back of the car he had made noises, and
rags were stuffed in his mouth. Then they went to
the culvert and disrobed the body, and Leopold
poured the hydrochloric acid over the face. Remember
the debate between these two men be-
fore they selected hydrochloric acid? One thought
it should be sulphuric, and the other said hydro-
chloric.
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